The Welfare of Women

Global Health Programme

Women’s health is widely recognised to be a global priority because women bear the greatest burden of health issues due to their family orientated role – and in many parts of the world poverty and crisis conditions often place women at an even greater degree of healthcare inequality. There is, therefore, an obvious need to lower the rates of maternal mortality/morbidity and to improve women’s healthcare generally - so the doctors, nurses, midwives and other health professionals who care for women, sometimes in very challenging and difficult circumstances, deserve support of every practical kind.

The Welfare of Women global health programme is a completely new initiative by The Global Library of Women’s Medicine and is an ambitious attempt to try and provide these health professionals with immediate access to the latest, state-of-the-art, information on women’s health and on the ‘best practice’ management of relevant clinical conditions.

At the same time the programme also tries to address the main factors that have, in the past, often limited the effective transmission of such information to those who need it most by using a range of new technologies and approaches in a carefully integrated manner. In this way it is hoped that this programme may make a small but practical contribution to the work of many dedicated healthcare professionals around the world.

Our programme has been designed to overcome some widely recognised challenges

Language Multi lingual – 6 languages for key features, with potential for many more

Distribution Using the internet AND mobile phone technologies combined to maximise coverage

Interactivity Offering options for reader interaction – not just passive study

Outreach Global distribution, assisted by local networks and national OBGYN Societies

Adaptability Featuring continuous updating, adaptation and extension

Focus Provided at three separate levels to meet differing needs of readers

This worldwide programme involves three different levels of intervention

For doctors Via the internet (and via memory sticks where internet is still unavailable)

For midwives/nurses Via mobile phone app and the internet

For women Via mobile phone app

Why is this different?

This integrated approach has never been possible before, and has never been attempted before, because it is only with the arrival of the latest developments in interactive communication plus active liaison with national Societies in over 130 different countries, that this is now feasible to attempt. The Global Library already has a vast worldwide readership (typically over 4 million visitors from some 170 countries annually) and will build on this to try and achieve real momentum and impact.

There are 3 separate elements to the programme

1. For doctors
   – 50 online volumes on women’s medicine (some 500 expert chapters in total) all offering online Assessment, Study Certification and Continuing Professional Development credits
2. For midwives and nurses
   – a unique practical guide for managing most of the conditions that may arise during a woman’s life course
3. For Community Health Workers – and Women themselves
   – simple health information and animations, highly illustrated – and with voice commentary for those who cannot read

For doctors
An entirely new, expert guide to women’s medicine in 50 Volumes – with interactive options for embedding learning and certifying study completion.

For Midwives and Nurses

• 95 separate “Companions to Management” guides covering a woman’s life course
• 10 Obstetric Emergencies algorithms
• 12 Skills videos
• Plus: optional record-keeping and data collection facilities

For Community Health Workers – and for Women themselves

• 48 highly illustrated animations on key health issues, accompanied by voice commentary for those who have reading difficulties
• Presented in 4 alternative ethnicities (Caucasian, African, Asian and Oriental)
• Plus more detailed guidance on each as text-only option for those who want further information

Global usage

• All national OBGYN Societies will be offered the opportunity of managing and controlling the WoW app in their own country – and to translate all its resources
• This local control will enable the national Society to ensure the effective distribution of the app, by working directly with their local health services and women’s health leaders
• Local control will also enable them to add locally relevant resources to the app – and to translate all its text into any local language
• The app has been specially designed to make these processes both possible and relatively simple, without requiring any special digital skills

Providing all the material in an unlimited range of different languages

• For doctors – all the 500 Practice Recommendations in the 50 Volume series will be provided initially in 6 different languages. Later it is hoped that it may even be possible to translate the full chapter texts into these languages
• For nurses, midwives, community health workers and women – in addition to the six different languages – the specially formatted programming allows for all their resources to be translated locally into an unlimited number of additional languages

Responding with flexibility

• This Welfare of Women programme is ongoing and flexible – so adaptations may continue to be made in response to experience and feedback. The Global Library of Women’s Medicine would greatly welcome any suggestions or proposals that might help to improve its coverage or enhance its effectiveness.